Dawgs By Nature
If Cleveland’s defense is going to be successful on Sunday, one specific position group needs to show drastic improve
The Cleveland Browns travel to New Orleans this weekend to take on the Saints in what “should” be a fairly winnable game for Kevin Stefanski and Co.
Though that’s probably not a safe word to use for how the Browns' season is going, the Saints aren’t exactly a playoff-level team right now. They’ve been dealing with a plethora of problems on both offense and defense to go along with having an interim head coach after Dennis Allen was fired last week.
One of New Orleans’ sole bright spots on offense has been the versatile play of star RB Alvin Kamara, and if Cleveland is going to have success shutting down the Saints’ offense they need to play better at linebacker this week.
The Browns’ linebacker room has been riddled with injuries over the past few weeks with Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah being placed on IR and Jordan Hicks dealing with a nagging elbow injury. As of right now, there’s a chance that Hicks will be available on Sunday but he’ll have to be cleared after a couple of serviceable practices this week.
Mohamoud Diabate, Devin Bush, and undrafted rookie LB Winston Reid have been handling a bulk of the defensive snaps in JOK and Hicks’ absence but they were underwhelming against the Chargers in week 9.
Diabate was pretty average in the game, but Devin Bush overran run lanes and didn’t put himself in great spots throughout the matchup. Due to an undisciplined run fit, he was heavily responsible for J.K. Dobbins’ second-quarter touchdown run.
Reid has been a better coverage player than run defender in his 61 total defensive snaps this season, but realistically he shouldn't need to be relied upon as a regular contributor on gamedays except for on special teams.
It’s also worth noting that with the thin linebacker group, Jim Schwartz routinely played S Grant Delpit closer to the line of scrimmage against LAC and he had some trouble adjusting. He missed a couple of big opportunities to stuff runningbacks near the line of scrimmage as well.
Hopefully, Jordan Hicks will be cleared to return this week but if Cleveland’s LB core doesn't improve against the Saints, then Alvin Kamara is going to easily exploit this group on both the ground and in the passing game.
Are you confident that the linebackers will “step up” on Sunday? Join fellow Browns fans in the comment section below.
